How to write the perfectIELTS Task 2 paragraph

And why you keep getting it wrong

Topic sentencesOne paragraph – ONE TOPIC. A lot of people try to put too many ideas

into each paragraph. Keep it simple.

The first sentence should say what THIS paragraph is about.

e.g.

One of the biggest causes of global warming is pollution from cars. This paragraph will only discuss how car pollution affects the global warming

Many people are of the opinion that the financial rewards that top sports personalities receive are unjustified. This one will only talk about WHY these people think that the money sportsmen get is not fair.

DevelopmentYour next sentence

should DEVELOP your topic sentence.

Give a reason that EXPLAINS the topic sentence.

One of the biggest causes of global warming is pollution from cars. The fumes that are produced from vehicles contain greenhouse gases, and these gases trap the heat from the sun in the atmosphere.

Many people are of the opinion that the financial rewards that top sports personalities receive are unjustified. They argue that these athletes only entertain the public and do not contribute anything useful or important to society in the way that doctors or lawyers do.

More developmen

tYou might need to add another development sentence to the

paragraph so that your point is well-developed, extended and

fully supported.

¡

One of the biggest causes of global warming is pollution from cars. The fumes that are produced from vehicles contain greenhouse gases, and these gases trap the heat from the sun in the atmosphere. Because the heat cannot escape, the atmosphere keeps heating up, and the result is higher average global temperatures.

Some problems with development sentences

They are too vague. You must be specific with your reasons and developing ideas.

They are not developing the topic sentence – people often add ideas which are not relevant to their main topic.

Adding too many points – making a list. Remember you are developing, not trying to see how many ideas you can get into one paragraph.

Give an exampleYou should try to give at

least one example in your essay. Make sure

the example is relevant and actually helps to

explain or illustrate your topic and development.

...They argue that these athletes only entertain the public and do not contribute anything useful or important to society in the way that doctors or lawyers do. These professionals, for example, save people’s lives and provide help and advice when legal assistance is required, and so they could be considered to have more important jobs than a footballer or a tennis player, who does not directly help society .

Some problems with examples● They do not help to explain the previous point or sentence

because they are about something else (maybe it is related to the topic but it is not exactly on topic).

● They are not true or completely unbelievable. DO NOT make up statistics in an example. You can be more vague here to get you example across:

E.g.

Do not write: For example, 85% of doctors say that they are overworked.

Do write: For example, we frequently hear doctors complaining that they are overworked.

ConcludingYes! Your paragraphs need

conclusions!

One of the biggest causes of global warming is pollution from cars. The fumes that are produced from vehicles contain greenhouse gases, and these gases trap the heat from the sun in the atmosphere. Because the heat cannot escape, the atmosphere keeps heating up, and the result is higher average global temperatures. So, the pollutants from cars are a major contributor to climate change.

...and here’s another example

Many people are of the opinion that the financial rewards that top sports personalities receive are unjustified. They argue that these athletes only entertain the public and do not contribute anything useful or important to society in the way that doctors or lawyers do. These professionals, for example, save people’s lives and provide help and advice when legal assistance is required, and so they could be considered to have more important jobs than a footballer or a tennis player who does not directly help society. As a result, their salaries should be higher than those of sports professionals.

Topic vocabularyYou need different ways

of saying the same thing – synonyms.

You also need to show that you know a lot of words and phrases related to the topic.

One of the biggest causes of global warming is pollution from cars. The fumes that are produced from vehicles contain greenhouse gases, and these gases trap the heat from the sun in the atmosphere. Because the heat cannot escape, the atmosphere keeps heating up, and the result is higher average global temperatures. So the pollutants from cars are a major contributor to climate change.

LinkingLink your sentences to get a

higher score for cohesion and coherence.

Most people just use a lot of ‘linking words’ like additionally, besides, furthermore, moreover.

Also use referencing to link your sentences. People use too many ‘linking words’ and not enough referencing words.

Many people are of the opinion that the financial rewards that top sports personalities receive are unjustified. They argue that these athletes only entertain the public and do not contribute anything useful or important to society in the way that doctors or lawyers do. These professionals, for example, save people’s lives and provide help and advice when legal assistance is required, and so they could be considered to have more important jobs than a footballer or a tennis player, who does not directly help society. As a result, their salaries should be higher than those of sports professionals.

More about linkingThe sentences in cohesive paragraphs follow a

pattern :Old information New information.

One of the biggest causes of global warming (old info from the introduction) is pollution from cars (new info). The fumes that are produced from vehicles (old info) contain greenhouse gases (new info), and these gases (old info) trap the heat from the sun in the atmosphere (new info). Because the heat cannot escape (old info), the atmosphere keeps heating up (new info), and the result is higher average global temperatures (new info). So, the pollutants from cars (old info) are a major contributor to climate change (old info).

Impress with your grammar

● You need to range of grammatical structures in your essay.

● Your sentences should be mostly error-free if you want to score highly in grammar.

Make sure you can write these:simple, compound and

complex sentencesmodalsdifferent tensesconditionalsgerundsrelative clauses

Do you want to write even better essays?Get your FREE essay checklist now!

Yes! Send me my FREE essay checklist now